What would be your recommendation for blocking ads on an android phone?
Do you use one and, if so, what's your 2 cents on what you're using?
Where have you seen the biggest improvement (reduction) if it works well?

Firefox Mobile with uBlock Origin extension.
YouTube ReVanced
For other apps: Some VPNs are also blocking Ads and Trackers. Proton for example.

I just use Firefox with uBlock and don't install apps that have ads in the first place.

If you are rooted adaway works great

i use personaldnsfilter for adblocking on android

it uses VPN to block domains, you can modify the host file, and it works all the time

Yeah im not quite sure what OP is going for here. Without root you wont be able to block ads system wide.

I don't install any app that has ads, to the extent that I even uninstalled Google Maps and became a pariah that has no Whatsapp. Most apps are from f-droid, I use OSMAND~ from f-droid, Firefox with ublock origin to browse and pipepipe as youtube client. I don't think I've ever seen an ad on this phone and that's how I like it.

I use TrackerControl for trackers in apps (and as others said Firefox+uBO, NewPipe for Youtube)

Simply looking to see what methods people here use to reduce ads.
I've not gotten into advanced user access with my phone though.

For me, the best bang for your buck as far as effort was to just set the DNS Provider to dns.adguard.com. Then use whatever adblocker or vpn solution you want on top of that. Has worked pretty well for me.

I've been using this for years, love it

In general i do like others and don't really use many apps that have ads.

I used to use TrackerControl which works great, but acts as a vpn to get around root restrictions that stop standard ad-blocking, and now I use a permanent VPN to my home network over Wireguard, so I can't use TrackerControl any more (or any other non-root system-wide ad blocker).

I got around this issue by setting up a work profile, and installing the few apps that I still use that have ads on the work profile, and having TrackerControl installed on the work profile. That way.. Can have always-on VPN on main profile, and few apps with ads blocked on the work profile.

I use Grayjay for YouTube, auto-blocks ads. Browser has its own ad blocker.

What ads are you trying to remove?
For a browser, I use FireFox mobile with the uBlock Origin and NoScript extensions. Those two eliminate most ads while browsing, though NoScript does require extra effort to allow some pages to function.
For games and other apps, I try to stick to stuff which doesn't have ads. This usually means paying for the stuff you use or sticking to pure open-source solutions. However, I still have some apps which have ads. For that there I use PiHole as a DNS at home, which eliminates most of them.

I could probably do more to avoid the few ads I do see, but at some point I just accept that advertisement is an inevitable consequence of our economy and just move on with life.

Block ads where? In apps? I don't have a stock android phone so I can't tell you about improvements. But Rethink DNS blocks whatever u choose hence apps can't show you ads anymore: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.celzero.bravedns/

This a million times ^

Combine that with FF and UBO and I almost never see an ad.

Blokada 5 with a bit of tweaking.

Adguard home blocks most ads on my network. But I'm also using Firefox with ublock on Android.

I use YouTube revanced to block YouTube ads on my phone. SmartTubeNext to block YouTube ads on my tv. So between these, it's exceptionally rare I see an ad.

It all depends on how you use the internet, and what ads you're seeing that you want to block.

Ublock origin with firefox browser. The app store didn't carry it when I last loaded it on my last android phone I will ever own that is now dead. I had to find it on a search and download it.

Ad blockers don't work well, and websites can tell you are using them and force you to whitelist to use their site. They can't tell with ublock.

Using a computer without it, (I have ublock on my computer as well,) I was amazed at how bad a lot of these sites are that I'm linked to for news or whatever. Moving pictures while I'm trying to read is a deal breaker for me.

Wait, so I should download something in addition to ublock with firefox? I don't think I see youtube commercials, I only watch a few shows on there and don't see any ads already lately at least. So it's the app or whatever on the tv or delivering the youtube to the tv that is advertising?

that's not true, you can block them with a VPN. or if you have one set up, a Pihole works even better. I haven't seen an ad in any android app in years.

it’s exceptionally rare I see an ad.

same here and something about this environment lets me get unreasonably triggered when i do see an ad. lol

for browsing, use Waterfox with uBlock Origin. for apps and the rest of the system, use a VPN that blocks ads like Proton, or use a Pihole.

The ads on YouTube (no account, and used their app) were one of the irritations that made me curious here.
I know very little about YouTube relanced... where'd you acquire it through?

I can't recommend this highly enough, there is one caveat though- it may break some links or hotel wifi login portals. Not a big deal, just switch it off for a second and reload the page, login, and then turn it back on. It's a quick 30s process to cycle it off so it's a non issue for me.

adaway is the best one, and now supports unrooted phones.

I use wgtunnel to stay connected to my home network to take advantage of dns filtering. Also have ublock origin installed in firefox mobile. Most of the activity is from blocking telemetry. The majority of apps I use on a daily basis are foss and the rare play store app is either a paid game or an app for a service like uber.

If you're not selfhosting, using one of the online options will probably work just as well.

DNS ad blockers won't block YouTube ads so for that specific case, you're limited to apps like Revanced or a browser ad blocker like UBlock Origin (and watching YouTube from your browser). For most all other ads (in your browser or in other apps) a DNS blocker like AdGuard works.

DNS 66. It looks to android as a vpn, but blocks known as hosts locally using lists of ad hosts.

revanced.app is the correct place to get it iirc.

This will let you download the "revanced manager" app's .apk . Once installed, the revanced manager app lets you take the .apk of a specific version of the YouTube app and patch it to make the revanced .apk . This enables ad blocking and other features like sponsorblock.

It has to be done this way because hosting prepatched apks is a good way to get sued by Google for violating the DMCA.

Also, AdGuard app on android

personaldnsfilter (yes, in a single word): https://github.com/IngoZenz/personaldnsfilter
It can use Hagezi lists (an many more), is free and open source.

My DNS filters most of it.

RethinkDNS.

The other replier is right, but since you replied to me, I'll chime in. To block YouTube ads you basically have 2 options.

1. Use something like YouTube revanced, or smart tube next. This has ad blocking and sponsor blocking built in. The other replier went over where to get it and how it works but from my understanding, people are shifting to an app called morphe. I don't know much about it as revanced is working fine for me, but if you're starting out with nothing, I'd be looking into morphe

2. Use ublock origin on your browser. You should be doing this anyway to block other browser ads. You'll need to use Firefox or a derivative of Firefox since chrome has massively crippled it.

Adaway

You might be interested to know, that a lot of the developers of revanced left the project after some beef with the project lead. they started a new project called morphe which does the same thing but with more frequent updates. https://morphe.software/ for the download

NextDNS can provide a similar experience to adaway and similar apps, but without needing an app and with no need to constantly manage anything or ensure an app is running or whatever, it just always works.

Not open source though, but the free plan is more than enough for a single person on all their devices, so for a single phone it should work.

It would appear that they're trying to learn from a community by asking questions, which I agree is a remarkably stupid thing to do.

Google always finds a way to bypass adblocking. What worked for me is using firefox with ublock origin. And using apps that don't have ads in the first place. There are many apps like this on F-droid.

Change to YouTube Morphe. Revanced hasn't been updated for aaaages and their monetisation actions are questionable.

Thanks! I'll definitely look into morphe... Yes, I already have UBO enabled on my Firefox browser.

OS ads, website ads or app ads?

• For OS ads, it depends on the manufacturer. Some don't have ads. For Xiaomi devices, ads can be completely removed by disabling a single app. Avoid anything by Samsung.
• For ads on websites, use Firefox with uBlock.
• App ads are the hardest to remove. You can try blocking ad domains at the OS level, or disable ads in each app's settings (if they give you that option).

Not seeing my particular setup listed yet. Morphe and Firefox with ublock of course. But I also have a pihole running at home and a tailscale connection with the pihole configured as DNS. So I have pihole blocking even on my mobile data connection.

Tailscale was initially setup so I can access Actual Budget when not on my LAN, but pihole on the go is definitely a big plus.

I tried that (tailscale -> pi-hole) but experienced terrible lag and drop-outs while surfing on mobile, probably due to the raspberry pi being overloaded or more likely my son playing Fortnite and saturating the connection

I like the stats - 14 million ads and malicious web requests blocked today!